JO MARCH & ANNE SHIRLEY: GIRLS WITH TOO MANY WORDS TO STAY QUIET
Character Comparison | Little Women and Anne of Green Gables
Jo March and Anne Shirley would probably begin talking within thirty seconds of meeting each other.
Stopping them might be considerably harder.
Both are imaginative, ambitious and constantly told, in different ways, that they are a little too much.
Too talkative.
Too dramatic.
Too independent.
Too unwilling to fit quietly into other people’s expectations.
Yet Jo and Anne respond to the world in very different ways.
Jo March, from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, wants to become a writer.
She dislikes many of the restrictions placed on girls in her time and dreams of building a life larger than the one society appears prepared to offer her.
Writing gives Jo a way to claim that independence.
She is energetic, stubborn and deeply loyal to her family.
She is also quick-tempered.
Jo often acts before considering how her words or behaviour may affect other people.
That is important because her strongest quality and biggest weakness come from the same place.
Jo refuses to shrink herself.
That gives her courage.
But sometimes it also makes compromise feel like defeat.
Anne Shirley, from L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, is equally determined to live intensely.
Anne arrives at Green Gables as an orphan who desperately wants somewhere to belong.
Unlike Jo, whose challenge is protecting her independence, Anne’s deepest desire is connection.
She wants a home.
Friends.
People who will choose her and continue choosing her.
Her imagination becomes a way of transforming ordinary life.
A pond becomes something magical.
A tree becomes a companion.
A simple afternoon can become an adventure because Anne refuses to believe ordinary things must remain ordinary.
Like Jo, Anne has a temper.
She can also be impulsive, proud and extremely sensitive about how others see her.
But both characters grow without losing the qualities that make them themselves.
Jo does not need to stop being ambitious to become thoughtful.
Anne does not need to stop imagining to become mature.
That is what makes them powerful characters.
Too often, growing up is described as becoming less.
Less emotional.
Less curious.
Less idealistic.
Less noisy.
Jo and Anne offer another possibility.
Growing up can mean learning how to use the person you already are more wisely.
Jo’s determination becomes discipline.
Anne’s imagination becomes empathy.
Both girls also remind readers that belonging and independence are not opposites.
Jo loves her family deeply while wanting a life of her own.
Anne longs for home without giving up the enormous inner world that makes her unique.
Perhaps that is why both characters remain memorable generations after they were written.
They are imperfect.
They make embarrassing mistakes.
They say things they regret.
They dream too loudly.
And they keep becoming.
Their stories leave us with a valuable question:
What if growing up is not about becoming less of yourself, but becoming better at being yourself?